Bam Bam

I've always loved this song by Chaka Demus and the Pliers titled Bam Bam:



Whenever I'd hear it, I would feel like - yeah, ahhhhhhhhh....

Well just recently, I learned that Chaka Demus & the Pliers were not the original artists of this song. That honor goes to Toots and the Maytals. Here's there version:



Now with most songs that have been remade, people usually have a version that they like more. And I would probably have to say that I like the Maytals' version just slightly more. I dunno if that has to do with it being newer to me. But, their version has such a easy, relaxing vibe to it while Chaka's version has a fun, energetic vibe. I guess I'm just feeling really chill as I write this.

The point of this blog entry: I like this song and wanted you all to know it. YES!

If you like piña colada........

Hello my brothers and sisters. I feel excited to be back in the mix for 2010. So, I picked up a good friend of mine from the train station and we get to talking about random things. He mentioned how if he had done certain things differently in his life that he'd be sitting on a Caribbean beach right now, sipping on a piña colada. And, two things dawned on me at that point. Number one: As somewhat well-traveled as I claim to be, I have never been in the Caribbean, not one island, cruise, not even Cancun. Heck, I've never even seen the Gulf of Mexico. Number two: Although a piña colada's considered a "girlie" drink, I believe that it isn't. It's at the very least, the least "girlie" of the "girlie" drinks. Bottom line, Joe Braza is still a man even if he wants to drink a piña colada right now.

Now, I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions. I believe that if you wanna make a resolution, you don't have to wait until the next year to start. You can start anytime. You can make it a March 15th resolution or a November 27th resolution. But, having said that, I do believe that if I'm going to continue to claim to be somewhat well-travelled, I should spend some time in the Caribbean region. So, by the end of this year, I, Joe Braza will have gone and traveled to the Caribbean region. I was thinking of the Dominican Republic or Jamaica and maybe even Aruba. I would love to go to Cuba, but there's this thing with the embargo that screws up that idea. I do want to spend a good amount of time in the island of choice. For instance, I don't want to go island-hopping, spending 2 or 3 days on a bunch of different islands. No, I wanna really get to know a place. So, I'm gonna spend some time researching and making a decision. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. But, until that trip, I'm gonna go down to 7-11 and get a piña colada slurpee. That should hit the spot

Love Thoughts Renewed

Yesterday, I renewed my promise to have only loving and nurturing thoughts. And, of course, I enjoyed a wonderful day. So today, I will continue to focus on this simple task. I thought about it more when I got up this morning. I understand that many people find it easy to hold grudges and to let their reactions control their emotions. I used to fall into this trap myself. I would let an event, like an inconsiderate driver cutting me off dictate how I felt for the day. Then, when I got to my destination I would feel impatient and even angry. And then, I could tell that people would sense that in me, and they would feel uneasy, and angry themselves. They would, in turn, transfer that to someone else later that day. A big chain reaction eventually engulfs several people all because I refused to let things go.

I could have just paid no mind to the person cutting me off. I didn't know the intentions of that person. That person probably didn't even realize that he cut me off. And I let it affect me. Then, it eventually negatively affected hundreds of people, maybe even thousands. Instead of just me having a bad day, thousands of people have a bad day. So, in a way, to make this world a better place, we must learn to let things go.

And what it comes down to, reacting to things and situations in a negative way involves people adopting a victim mentality. We feel victimized because we feel a lack of control over the situation. We give in to our emotions because in our minds we don't feel we deserved whatever negative situation came about. We must never lose control. The truth - you can chose exactly how you want to feel about any situation. You demand this of yourself. You demand that you will be happy by any means necessary. You demand that you will only have loving and nurturing thoughts. This can work as a chain reaction in the same way that anger can infect a group of people. And that simple action and promise makes the world a better place.

The Way of the Braza - Love

One of the coolest things I continue to experience involves my sister whispering to her son (my nephew) that the secret to life is to love. And whenever I see and hear her do that, I reaffirm that belief to myself. I remember the happiest times in my life involved the times spent around people who I love: friends, family. I also experience happiness around people who vibrate in the Love realm. I don't have to know them to feel the love. I feel the love as I process the energy that they send out.

A lot of people don't believe or understand that our thoughts affect others and the environment. And, they really do. You don't have to say a word to someone for them to know when you're feeling sad or excited or lonely. When you hate someone with a passion, they know it. So, you shouldn't get surprised when that person that you really hate doesn't give you that raise or doesn't help you with a favor. On the flip side, people also know when you love them. They go out of their way for you. They smile when you appear in their sight. As you get older, you learn to sense other, more subtle emotions and feelings like sincerity, sarcasm, annoyed, relief, etc.

I knew this before and I keep having to remind myself of this. So today, I begin once again, to have only loving and nurturing thoughts. And this doesn't only extend to just other people. This extends to places and inanimate objects. For example, I will have loving thoughts about Bakersfield. I used to hate Bakersfield, but now I love it. I will have loving thoughts about my computer, my tax return, my socks that easily get holes in them. I will also extend this lovefest to situations and scenarios like I will have loving thoughts about having just one follower on this blog. You're a cool person whoever you are, follower. May you live a prosperous and long life. Yeah, you know what? I love you all. YEAH!

Joe Braza - The Comedian

People ask me all the time what do I talk about in my comedy. And, I really can't narrow it down to one thing. I'm pretty much all over the map. The only thing that's constant is that when you leave the show, you know my name. If you don't know what I mean, take a look at this recent show that I did in late September:

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed performing it. Had a really fun time. I'll be sure to post more of my comedy up in future entries.

Space Exploration

There's been an uproar about how NASA spent $79 million to collide a probe into the moon in search for water. You hear the arguments and beliefs about how spending money on Space Exploration is wasteful, that the money should be spent on other areas. But, people fail to realize that space exploration has provided huge benefits to mankind, more than anything that has come before. You can find just a fraction of the valuable products that have been developed by space exploration here. And, just think about how different our world would be without satellite imaging or satellites period. Basically, I'd still be posting these blogs up using a dial-up modem. I would still be buying porn instead of getting it for free.


Don't get me wrong. We can spend money in other worthy areas to improve our society and our civilization., our planet. But, spending money on space exploration gives back a very high return on investment. People talk about high gas prices and the need for alternative energy sources. Well, I believe space will provide us with answers and other possibilities for better and more environmentally-friendly energy sources. In fact, at some point, the oil will run out and we won't have any choice but to find another energy source. Maybe, we already reached that point.

Regardless of all the benefits and logical reasons for exploring space, I personally just get excited about it. I get excited about the possibility of mankind living on the moon and on other planets. And as we try to figure out how to do that, we will gain more knowledge and create and invent more products that will improve our existence. Maybe if we focus more on exploring space, we could focus less on wars and our differences. We can come together in peace and understanding. That's why I don't mind NASA spending $79 million to find out if there's water on the moon. Hey, maybe the moon can be the solution to our clean water issues on Earth.

Fro Update

As you can see, we have a guy who's very happy and upbeat about life. The Fro is really starting to take shape. People that knew me when I was completely shaved don't recognize me or do double takes when they see me. I want to reassure you all that, although I now have The Fro, I'm still the same lovable, huggable guy that you all knew or will soon really know. I like sports. I like watching sunsets and taking long walks on the beach because chicks wear bikinis on the beach. And I like to scratch my nuts when it itches.

But, yeah, we are currently at 63% of Full Fro Realization. I'm 2/3rds of the way there. I'm planning on having some kind of party or celebration when we reach 100%. Probably gonna have it at Dairy Queen. Whos with me?